The National Park Service has signed a decision allowing construction of a new interpretive center at Dinosaur National Monument and rehabilitation of the structure that protects its famous collection of bones.

The Quarry Visitor Center, about 20 miles east of Vernal, has been closed for more than two years because of safety problems. The center was built atop unstable clay.

The center houses more than 1,500 dinosaur bones. The closure has frustrated visitors and paleontologists seeking access to what the Park Service calls ''the world's best window" into late-Jurassic fossils.

Mary Risser, the monument's superintendent, said design of the $10 million project will take about a year.

Construction money could be available for 2011, according to the Park Service, but so far the project hasn't been funded.

''With that huge bailout bill, I have no idea what that's going to mean for our budget and these kinds of projects," Risser said.

The odds may be long for the project to be immediately funded but at least the Park Service will be ready with a design when Congress acts, said Jim Kirkland, Utah's state paleontologist.

''It's wonderful news, that's the crown jewel of Utah paleontology," he said.

The visitor center was built in 1957-58 to shelter an exposed cliff face full of dinosaur bones discovered by a Carnegie Museum researcher in 1909.

But the bentonite beneath the building swells when it's wet, warping the concrete basement floor, and shifts again when the clay dries out. That has meant near-constant shifting and repairs.

When engineers cut holes in the floor and ceiling for a closer look in 2006, the problem was worse than previously thought. The center abruptly closed that July. Federal investigators in March said the building's rapid deterioration puts the ''irreplaceable fossils at risk."

It's been frustrating to have the bones out of reach for the public and researchers, Kirkland said.

''Scientists from all over the world want to stop in and see that," he said.

Although fixes have been discussed since the visitor center closed, the process has been slow and complicated. The building is listed as a National Historic Landmark, which means having to comply with an extra set of rules.

Under the plan, the Park Service will rehabilitate the existing exhibit hall surrounding the 150-foot fossil wall to make sure the bones are protected. Other parts of the building would be demolished. An interpretive center and administrative offices would be built nearby.

Meanwhile, the existing building continues to creak and groan, Risser said.

''The cracks are getting large. It hasn't fallen through, but it's just not in good shape," Risser said.

The monument straddles the Utah-Colorado line, about 150 miles east of Salt Lake City.